FAiR: Factor Analysis in R

This package estimates factor analysis models using a genetic algorithm, which permits a general mechanism for restricted optimization with arbitrary restrictions that are chosen at run time with the help of a GUI. Importantly, inequality restrictions can be imposed on functions of multiple parameters, which provides a new avenues for testing and generating theories with factor analysis models. This package also includes an entirely new estimator of the common factor analysis model called semi-exploratory factor analysis, which is a general alternative to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, this package integrates a lot of other packages that estimate sample covariance matrices and thus provides a lot of alternatives to the traditional sample covariance calculation. Note that you need to have the Gtk run time library installed on your system to use this package; see the URL below for detailed installation instructions. Most users would only need to understand the first twenty-four pages of the PDF manual.

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